


Across the Miles

by gunslingaaahhh



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-15
Updated: 2011-05-15
Packaged: 2017-10-24 23:18:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/268997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunslingaaahhh/pseuds/gunslingaaahhh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little something for Mother's Day</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across the Miles

“Ok Monkey, lemme see your foot,” Danny said, squatting on the floor and holding his hand out for the dainty white shoes Grace was holding in her lap as she sat on the couch.

He’d ended up having her two weekends in a row, a rare treat, because of how Mother’s day was falling. Rachel and some of her friends – also mothers – had planned a whole day of mother-daughter activities with lots of pink things, sugary things, and girly things.

“Daddy…” Grace started, brows furrowing slightly. “Is Steve an orphan?”

Danny looked up sharply, hands freezing. Grace just stared back at him, waiting for a response. Frowning, he shook his head and put the other shoe on her foot, managing to do up the clasp on the ankle without too much trouble.

“Why would you think that, sweetie? Of course Steve isn’t an orphan.”

“But orphans are what happen when someone doesn’t have a mom or a dad, right?”

“… yes, that’s what it means, but—“

“And Steve doesn’t have a mom or a dad, so isn’t he an orphan?”

Sighing, Danny pinched at the bridge of his nose before standing and taking a seat next to Grace. She moved so that she was facing him, gazing up at him expectantly. As he thought about it, trying to come up with an answer that would make sense to a nine year old, he realized that she sort of had a point, in a weird way. Steve didn’t have parents anymore, both of them ripped away from him… but Steve was also an adult, so technically it wasn’t the same; plenty of adults were roaming around without parents, be it by old age or illness.

“Being an orphan… ok, do you remember when your mom and Stan took you to see ‘Annie’?”

Grace nodded her head emphatically ‘yes’; that had been a production, alright, the show being on a Saturday night of what was supposed to have been _his_ weekend.

“Ok, so you remember that Annie was a little girl living in an orphanage, and she was with a lot of other kids? Well, to really be an orphan, you have to be a kid. A kid can’t get a job or take care of themselves, really, and they have no parents to take care of them so… you can only be an orphan if you’re a kid.”

Lame finish, yeah, but she was nine, what else could he do? He watched the wheels turn in her head as she thought about it, privately proud of how _smart_ she was.

“So when Annie grows up, she won’t be an orphan anymore? Even though she still doesn’t have a mom and dad?”

“Um… I guess… hmm.” That was a tough one, and Danny knew Grace knew he thought it was a tough one, and what exactly she was getting at.

“Steve’s mom died when he was a kid, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right—wait, how did you know what? Monkey, that really… who told you that?”

“I heard Mommy talking about it,” Grace replied with a shrug of her tiny shoulders. “She said it ‘explained a lot,’” and Grace is frowning, trying to remember what her mother had said. Danny grits his teeth, feeling slightly betrayed that Rachel would even be talking about it, let alone to Stan or whoever.

“Sometimes grown-ups talk about things that aren’t any of their own business, kiddo, ok? And no, you can’t be half an orphan; Steve’s dad was still around even after his mom died.”

But that isn’t really, true, is it? No, Steve’s father became a workaholic, obsessed with finding out the truth at the expense of spending time with his living, breathing family. They were only in the way, eventually, and he sent them off to live with someone else… like orphans. Ah, now he was seeing what Grace was getting at; nine though she may be, she was much brighter than he or Rachel or Stan gave her credit for.

“Why are you asking about this, Gracie?”

“We were talking about Mother’s day in school, and about different kinds of moms, like foster-moms and step-moms and how sometimes your Nana can be your mom, or your sister, or your auntie, and I was thinking about how Steve doesn’t have a mom anymore, so he can’t give her anything for Mother’s Day, and then I was thinking about how orphans can’t do anything on Mother’s Day, either, and how it’s the same.”

Danny blinks back tears, overwhelmed by Grace’s depth of perception and how much she seems to care about this, about _Steve_.

“That’s really sweet of you, Monkey,” Danny says at last, leaning over to drop a kiss on the top of her head. “C’mon, lets get cracking before your mom calls.”

~*~

“Danny? What are—is that Kono and Chin and… Kamekona? What are you guys _doing_ here?” Steve asked, incredulous, when he spots the rest of his team, plus a few extras, sitting on his lanai and grilling steaks.

“Thought we’d come and keep you company,” Chin calls, turning the steaks over. He’s got a look, one that says Steve will appreciate this later, and turns his attention back to the grill.

“You didn’t… well, at least you brought food,” Steve says, a little grumpy. He goes to the kitchen and is delighted to find beer chilling in the fridge.

“Gracie gave me the idea,” Danny says quietly from behind him, startling him. His eyes watch Steve’s face, searching for something. “She also wanted me to give this to you… though I think it’d have made more sense for you to have it earlier.”

There is a pink envelope in his hand, and Steve’s throat tightens, he knows what it is. He takes it and opens it anyways, untucking the flap of the envelope to pull out a floral Mother’s day card. The handwriting isn’t Grace’s, and it certainly isn’t Danny’s…

“Rachel was kind enough to write the note inside,” Danny explained, gesturing. “She’s the only person I know who still writes in script, and it’s really pretty, so Grace thought that’d be the best way to go. I had to give them your mom’s name, of course, but she took care of the rest.”

“Why…” Steve starts, swallowing thickly before continuing, “why’d you guys do this?”

“Grace… and me, we both thought that it’d be nice to give your mom a… a card, and I didn’t even think that you’d go visit in the morning, that’s my bad.”

“I… didn’t. I drove halfway there and stopped, I had to pull over,” Steve says, eyes misting over a little. He remembers himself then, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Oh… well, that’s something from us, for her, if you wanna bring that… I dunno how you usually do it. For my Nana, we’d bring a pink carnation and a card to leave, even though it was usually rainy and the card would get soggy.” Danny’s rambling, nervous that he’s overstepped his bounds on this one, but Steve is smiling a little, a ghost of a thing, and Danny relaxes slightly.

“That’s really nice, Danny, thank you. And everyone else is here…?”

“Moral support? Kono almost started bawling when I told her about the card, said that you shouldn’t be alone today and that we should have a little something.”

“What about her mom?”

“They do a breakfast thing,” Danny said, waving it off. “All the women get together and do a huge thing, so she said as long as we came over in the afternoon it’d be fine. And I’m assuming Chin and Kamekona already took care of their obligations, so don’t worry about it.”

Steve nods, tucking the card back into the envelope and placing it gently on the counter. He uncaps his beer, almost mechanically, and inhales about half of it before Danny can drag him back out onto the lanai.

The group of them laugh, tell stories, and eat until they’re ready to burst. One by one they leave, later afternoon approaching. Steve hugs each of them in turn, fiercely, and kisses Kono on the cheek, squeezing her tightly to his chest. Eventually, it’s just him and Danny sitting down by the water, Longboards sitting in the sand.

All of a sudden, Danny’s phone goes off, and he stands, digging around in his pockets before he finally finds it.

“Hello? Hi! What? Yeah, hold on,” he says before holding the phone out to Steve. “S’for you, babe.”

Steve’s eyes widen in surprise, staring at the phone with confusion before taking it.

“Um… hello?”

“Steven? Hi! It’s Danny’s mom, how are you?”

“Oh, uh, fine thanks – happy Mother’s Day,” he says, eyes drifting over to silently ask his partner what this was about. Danny just smiles a little before settling back into his chair.

“So tell me what you boys got up to today!”

“Isn’t it… isn’t it kind of late, there? I don’t want to keep you up—“

“Don’t be ridiculous, Steven! I’m not some old broad who needs to nap at all hours of the day, I don’t care what my son makes me sound like. Now, what did you boys do? Nothing violent or dangerous, I hope – even criminals have mothers.”

Without realizing it, Steve finds himself sucked into conversation with a woman he’s never met, answering questions and listening to stories, laughing along with her when she tells him something Danny had done or said when he was a kid. It’s easy, comfortable – like talking to Danny but much less abrasive, with that same chiding tone. There is affection here, too, and love, and it makes Steve’s chest tighten a little.

Before long it’s dark, and Steve realizes it must be some ungodly hour back in New Jersey, and he feels like a jerk keeping Danny’s mom on the phone so late.

“Don’t be silly… even if you’re right, it is pretty late, or is it early? I can never tell. Well, I’ll let you go; tell my son he needs to call me a little more often, would you? He can’t escape me that easily.”

“I will, Mrs. Williams—“

“Oh, come on now, stop that! You can call me Ma, everyone does.”

There is silence in response, Steve trying very hard to keep his emotions in check. Danny is watching him, he can feel the other man’s blue eyes watching his face.

“She won’t mind, hon,” her voice is gentle, understanding, and Steve can’t anymore. A heavy sob bursts from his throat, and he slaps a hand over his lips, preventing any more sound from escaping. Danny is up and over to him like a shot, an arm slung around his shoulders.

“M-maybe next time,” Steve says, voice thick with tears. “But thank you, I—I really appreciate that.”

“Alright, next time then. You take care of yourself, Steven, you hear me? I don’t want to get anymore reports about jumping off buildings or feeding people to sharks… you can leave the grenades in the car, though, that’s fine.”

Steve laughs despite himself, can hear Danny spluttering beside him, and ends the call, handing the phone over. There is an easy silence between them, Danny sitting on the arm of the chair with a hand on Steve’s shoulder, and Steve reclined back into him.

“That was really nice.”

“Ma’s a talker, but she means well.”

“No really… did you plan that?”

“Maybe,” Danny says, smiling a little and cuffing Steve on the back of the head. “I spoke to her earlier and she asked what Grace was up to today, and that lead to – somehow – what _you_ were doing today, and she asked if she could talk to you, so I told her to just call later. I didn’t realize how late it would be, but apparently she doesn’t have anywhere to be tomorrow… today… whatever.”

“Thank you,” Steve says simply, turning in the chair so he’s facing Danny. He leans in and wraps his arms around Danny’s middle, nuzzling against his chest. Danny drapes his arms around Steve’s shoulders and hugs him back, squeezing a little.

“Will you come with me tomorrow to visit her?”

“If you want me to be there, then that’s where I’ll be, babe.”

 

 


End file.
